Dallas Blues

Dallas Blues is a blues track whose melody was copyrighted to Hart A. Wand in 1912 and to which Lloyd Garrett wrote a text before 1918. From the 1930s onwards, the song became a jazz standard through numerous recordings , especially in traditional jazz .

Emergence

The Dallas Blues is one of the first true blues titles in the 12- bar song form AAB to be published; Before that, Anthony Maggio's “I Got the Blues” appeared in 1908, in which, however, a 12-bar blue part in G major is followed by a passage in G minor with typical ragtime forms , and “ Oh! You Beautiful Doll, ”a Tin Pan Alley song from 1911, the first verse of which is a twelve-measure blues. In 1912 two more songs were released that included "Blues" in their title, "Baby Seals Blues" (August 1912), a vaudeville number by Arthur "Baby" Seales, and "The Memphis Blues" by WC Handy (September 1912). According to Samuel Charters , none of the earlier songs was a true blues song.

The lyrics, written by Lloyd Garrett in 1918, represented the singer's affection for Dallas :

There's a place I know, folks won't pass me by,

Dallas, Texas, that's the town, I cry, oh hear me cry.

And I'm going back, going back to stay there 'til I die, until I die.

According to research by Samuel Charters, who interviewed Hart Wand for his book The Country Blues (1959), he brought the song to a pianist friend, Annabelle Robbins, who arranged the music for him. Charters mentions that the song title came from one of Wand's father's workers, who commented that the song would "give him the blues to return to Dallas." Shortly after it was first published by Hart A. Wand in Oklahoma City, it was on the Mississippi often played, and henceforth known nationwide.

Recordings

Dallas Blues was recorded by Marie Cahill in 1917 (Victor 55081). The title was first recorded in the field of jazz on October 7, 1918 by Wilbur Sweatman's Original Jazz Band (Columbia A-2633), followed by recordings in the 1920s a. a. by Bob Fuller , Fred Hall , Lucille Hegamin , Maggie Jones and Lee Morse ., in Blues a. a. by Bobby Leecan and Robert Cooksey ( The South Street Trio ).

The song Dallas Blues was now often played in the style of ragtime or dixieland jazz , although it was written as blues at a slow pace . In the early 1930s, the title was in the repertoire of dance orchestras and jazz bands. Louis Armstrong had a chart success in the United States in 1930 with his version ( Okeh Records 8774). In 1931 Ted Lewis came with singer Fats Waller with the title in the charts at number 7. In this decade, Dallas Blues u. a. also recorded by Andy Kirk , the Casa Loma Orchestra , Isham Jones , Wingy Manone , George Hall and Woody Herman and His Orchestra (with band vocalist Mary Ann McCall ). The song was first recorded in Europe by The Berry's , a Zurich band around drummer Berry Peritz (1941) and by Dick Willebrandts en zijn Radio Orkest (1943).

In later years Dallas Blues a . a. also interpreted by Red Nichols , Humphrey Lyttelton , Lu Watters , George Lewis , Ken Colyer , Turk Murphy , Acker Bilk and Max Collie . In the field of jazz he is listed by Tom Lord in 175 cover versions .

literature

• Samuel B. Charters, The Country Blues . Da Capo Press, 1975. ISBN 0-306-80014-4
• Francis Davis, The History Of The Blues: The Roots, The Music, The People . Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81296-7
• Craig Duncan, Blues Fiddling Classics . Mel Bay Publications, 1994. ISBN 0-7866-1855-8
• David A. Jasen, A Century of American Popular Music: 1899-1999 . Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0-415-93700-0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mississippi State University's Templeton Digital Sheet Music Collection
2. ↑ Dallas Blues ( Memento of the original from December 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Frank K. Root & Company, ca.1918.  
3. ↑ Duncan, Blues Fiddling Classics , p. 30: “This tune was the first 12-bar blues to be published (March 1912). It was written by violinist / band leader Hart Wand from Oklahoma. "
4. ↑ Davis, The History of the Blues , p. 59: "But in a sense, the very first blues was the twelve-bar opening verse to the pop song 'Oh, You Beautiful Doll', which was published in 1911."
5. ↑ Davis, The History of the Blues , p 59: “The composer of the very first copyright 'blues' was Hart Wand, a white Oklahoma violinist and bandleader whose 'Dallas Blues' was so named because its melody gave a black porter who worked for Wand's family 'the blues to go back to Dallas.' This was followed a few months later by 'Baby Seal Blues', a negligible item by the black vaudeville performer Arthur 'Baby' Seals and ragtime pianist Arthur Matthews. "
6. ↑ Charters, The Country Blues , pp. 34–35: “The first was Hart Wand's 'Dallas Blues,' published in March; the second was Arthur Seals's' Bab Seals' Blues', published in August; Handy finally brought out his blues in September. Both Handy and Arthur Seals were Negroes, but the music that they titled blues is more or less derived from the standard popular musical styles of the 'coon-song' and ' cake-walk ' type. It is ironic the first published piece in the Negro blues idiom, 'Dallas Blues,' was by a white man, Hart Wand. "
7. ^ Jasen, A Century of American Popular Music , p. 45: Dallas Blues ; Wall Publishing Co. — Oklahoma City, 1912; Probably the first published blues number. Words were added (by Lloyd Garrett in 1918).
8. ↑ Charters, The Country Blues , p. 35.
9. ↑ Charters, The Country Blues , p. 36: "Twenty bars in all, it was easy to play and whistle, and within a few weeks it was a favorite the length of the Mississippi River."
10. ↑ ^{a b} Tom Lord: The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 18, 2014)
11. ↑ Tempo di Blues. Very slowly  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ ^{a b} Jammin 'for the Jackpot: Big Bands and Territory Bands of the 30's (Liner Notes: New World NW 217) ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ↑ Jasen, A Century of American Popular Music , p. 45: Although a favorite of dance and jazz bands, Ted Lewis and His Band had the number 7 hit in 1931, with Fats Waller as vocalist (Columbia 2527-D).